Fragility, resulting both from violent conflict and/or severely adverse environmental conditions linked to climate change, fundamentally alters the linkages between agriculture and nutrition outcomes. This paper argues that these alterations occur not only because of the political economy and other logistic constraints placed on agriculture and nutrition in contexts of fragility, but also because the state may or may not have the capacity or political will to undertake the different degrees of flexible and innovative functioning required to administer and implement interventions in such contexts. A rethinking of where and when the state does and does not have the willingness or organisational capacity to exercise effective control and implement programmes is needed in order to determine the full extent of whether and how agriculture can be leveraged for nutrition.